Mick McCarthy insists he is in no hurry to resolve Marcus Stewart's contract situation after the striker unwittingly helped justify the decision to keep his future up in the air.

Sunderland have long maintained that no talks will take place with Stewart until his current contract expires at the end of the season. And McCarthy pointed to the striker's hat-trick in Saturday's 4-2 win over Watford at the Stadium of Light as proof that the strategy is working.

"Stewie was available to leave through financial issues at the start of the season. Quite clearly he's not available to leave at the moment and I'll discuss that when it comes to it," McCarthy said of his 32-year-old frontman's situation.

"The nice thing about people that are out of contract is you find there's a little spark about them. You find people work harder and have a right cut at it.

"I'm not going to sit down and unhinge or dismantle any of that work that he's doing. He's brilliant. He's not insecure about it.

"Let's see how we do, let's see where we end up, let's see what league we're in. There's no rush."

One striker who certainly looks to have a bright future at the Stadium of Light is Stewart's strike partner, Stephen Elliott.

Despite failing to find the net, the Republic of Ireland international again impressed, creating Stewart's opening goal but failing to convert a chance himself when the ball fell to him yards from goal.

"How he's not scored, I don't know, to be honest with you," McCarthy admitted, before pointing out that he does not only judge his strikers on their goals return.

"The difference is Stewie's putting the ball in the net," he added. "I kept saying before that him and Stephen Elliott were the best partnership and it was Stevie Elliott getting the goals and Stewie was much maligned.

"It was lovely to take him off after half an hour and he'd done his job. He got a standing ovation from everybody, which he deserved."

Although Stewart's third goal owed much to a misjudgment by Watford's on-loan goalkeeper Paul Jones, McCarthy felt the Wales number one was instrumental in keeping the score down.

"The keeper made some fantastic saves. He stopped it being seven or eight with some of the saves he made. He made one off Browny (Chris Brown) which was an incredible save and one off Stevie Elliott when he tipped it over the crossbar."

The only real blots on Sunderland's copy-book were the two goals they allowed substitute Bruce Dyer to score in the final 15 minutes, goals which could prove crucial in the tight promotion race the Black Cats currently find themselves in.

"At half-time what I wanted to do was not let any in and if we'd have ended up 2-0 it wouldn't have bothered me at all," the manager added.

"We didn't sit back, that was not the case. What I wanted to do was continue what we were doing which was being solid at the back.

"I just think 4-0, that's emphatic. Conceding two goals just slightly takes the edge off it."

Opposite number Ray Lewington was also critical of his side's defensive display, commenting: "The first three goals were all down to us. If you do that against a side like Sunderland it's hard to get back."

The Hornets boss lamented his side's inconsistency, though he was quick to point out the reasons for it. Watford reached this season's Worthington Cup semi-finals, yet find themselves 16th in the Championship.

"What you pay for is consistency," he argued. "Sunderland's wage bill is probably three times ours. If you haven't got a great deal of money you get players who can be very good on the day but ask them to do it week in, week out and that's slightly different.

"You know what you are going to get with Sunderland - they work hard week in, week out. They get all the nuts and bolts right. They got the ball forward and they've got a front two who get into the channels and they're not afraid to waste balls. I was very impressed with the kid Elliott. He moves the centre-back out of the centre and creates space for others."